A Bill Bobrick Plug: Begich on Ethics

Well Mayor Begich today was stumping on company time and speaking to the press.

In today's ADN, the following article was written on the ADN Blog.

Begich on ethics

Posted by Alaska_Politics
Posted: May 19, 2008 - 3:26 pm

From Terry Carr in Anchorage ...

Detailing what he called his “Alaska Ethics Pledge,” Anchorage mayor and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Mark Begich vowed to run an open campaign and promised honesty and accessibility if elected this fall.

Begich, standing on a downtown Anchorage street corner and flanked by a pair of supporters, gestured at the federal building behind him and said “far too many elected officials” have passed through the courthouse inside as defendants. He pledged financial reporting and accountability that would go “beyond the Senate ethics laws on the books.”

Begich mentioned no specific names in delivering the plan, and when pressed whether he was targeting Republic incumbent Sen. Ted Stevens, he refused to point fingers directly at the senator. He said his complaints were with the process and not with individuals. “The system doesn’t work,” he said.

Later, within minutes of the release of a summary of the press conference from the Begich camp, an Alaska Democratic Party spokeswoman e-mailed a memo critical of Stevens’s voting record on ethics issues. Titled “Ted Stevens Record on Ethics — Unfamiliar With The Concept,” the memo faults the senator for being on what it sees as the wrong side of a list of measures dealing with ethics and lobbying reaching back to 1995.

It is an interesting point that candidate Begich, while stumping on company time, in front of the federal courthouse, spoke to the fact that elected officials have passed through inside the courthouse as defendants.

Why is it interesting?

Bill Bobrick, longtime friend of candidate Begich and 2000 Deputy Treasurer of candidate Begich, passed through the same courthouse as a defendant.

Not only was Bobrick a defendant, so was Bill Allen who as we know, owned VECO and made contributions to certain elected officials. And Bill Allen during the trial of Pete Kott, (one of the elected officials that was a defendant) testified in the courthouse the following:

http://community.adn.com/adn/node/110577#comment

"....Allen said the bonus program - in which Veco execs got money that they were to spend on political donations and, Allen said, charities - was set up by Veco exec Pete Leathard. If you ever look through old APOC records, you’ll often see five or six Veco officials giving large checks to the same candidate on the sameday."

What was on candidate Begich's 2000 APOC report? The type of contributions that VECO owner Bill Allen testified to.

If you go to the APOC website for 2000 on Mark Begich, you will find the following contributor's from VECO: https://webapp.state.ak.us/apoc/individ.jsp?filer=BEGICH%2C+MARK&offset=1

1

04/25/2000$500.00
ALLEN, BILL J. Anchorage Oil/Gas Extraction
04/26/2000

2
04/25/2000$500.00
ALLEN, JEANNETTE Anchorage Other
06/07/2000

3
04/25/2000$500.00
ALLEN, MARK J Anchorage
Oil/Gas Extraction
05/05/2000

58
04/26/2000$500.00
CHAN,
ROGER J. Anchorage Oil/Gas Extraction
05/05/2000

150
04/25/2000$500.00
LEATHARD, PETER Anchorage Oil/Gas Extraction
05/05/2000

257
04/25/2000$500.00
SMITH, RICHARD L. Anchorage
Oil/Gas Extraction
05/05/2000

Contributions that fit Bill Allen's testimony on illegal campaign contributions. And contributions that fit Rick Smith's testimony on the contributions from the executives going back seven years.

Under oath, Bobrick testified of setting up or working on a "Weimar" style fundraiser in the past.
http://www.ktuu.com/global/Story.asp?s=6745818

In the same recorded conversation, which was transcribed and shown to jurors on an overhead screen, Bobrick alludes that he and Weimar had worked on something similar in the past. He went on to say Weimar had once come up with a stack of checks for a prior campaign, totaling as much as $65,000. Again, no evidence, other than transcribed excerpts of the conversation in which Bobrick makes these remarks, was presented in court regarding these claims.

Who is listed on the 2000 APOC report as a contributor?

282
10/15/1999$500.00
WEIMAR, WILLIAM C. Anchorage Health
11/08/1999

283
10/15/1999$500.00
WEIMAR, WILLIAM C. Anchorage Health
01/31/2000

There is a little irony in that when it comes to throwing the ethics issue around, Begich has a lot of baggage when it comes to having close ties with those who have passed through the doors of the federal courthouse as defendents.

Defendants that contributed to his campaigns, were involved in fundraising for him and a close friend.